Men and women from all walks of
life and all political parties, or none, met in
the Square House of the University of New South
Wales on November 9, 1996 to found the H.S.Chapman Society

They were all victims of, or
witnesses of, electoral fraud concerned that the
1983-4 changes to the Commonwealth Electoral
Act by Labor’s Mick Young MP, Senators Ray and
Richardson, (the ‘Fixer” ), "would ‘ensure Labor would stay in power
as long as possible and make it as difficult as
possible to change it." (Whatever
It Takes - Memories by Graham Richardson).’

A new Australian Electoral
Commission (AEC) took over the old pyramid of
power, based on managing both the electoral roll
and elections, in 1984. Almost at once the AEC
in Canberra began to reverse that pyramid of
power to co-locate DRO’s and render the system
more complex, obscure and impotent
and its evolving revolutionary new system
incompetent to keep a honest roll or election.

The AEC’s new pyramid of power
began to crumble slowly from the start and its
management to become more and more centralized
and, in the process, dismissive, defensive,
obstructive and adversarial in denial of an
increase in fraud from its new ‘user-friendly’
system. Critics found themselves exposed to
campaigns against their business, livelihood and
reputation in and out of parliament. Politicians
in marginal seats went in fear of losing their
seats.

The often Labor-friendly
journalist, Laurie Oakes, leapt to the defence
of critics in 1989..
“Is organized fraud conspiracy? It was never
called ‘conspiracy in the past in the unions.
Just old-fashioned ‘ballot-rigging’…Those, who
were fighting to ‘clean up’ union elections were
not, branded ‘fundamentalists’ only Fascists or
reactionary ‘rightists’. And that by the
Communists and ‘fellow-travelers’ they were
trying to oust, whose only method of argument
was argument by abuse.

“Yet that is exactly what
happens today to anyone who dares to suggest
that parliamentary elections may need cleaning
up, may even possibly have become a new happy
hunting ground of ‘ballot-riggers’.’Those, who
offer this opinion, or any other opinion
alleging defects in the electoral system, should
be entitled to do so without running the
gauntlet of abuse or damaging false attacks
(Bulletin November 1989).”

Dr.
Amy McGrath OAM wrote two books - The Forging
of Votes 1995 about union fraud in the
Federated Ironworkers Union, and The Frauding
of Votes 1996 about parliamentary fraud.
About the ‘user-friendly’ reforms of 1984 she
said: “The Electoral
Act has been degraded. The floodgates to
manipulation and fraud have been opened.
Democracy has been debauched. The electoral law
is now an ass. The Courts of Disputed Returns
today serve to protect fraud rather than
democracy (Corrupt
Elections- Experiences of Ballot Rigging H.S.
Chapman Society 1997 p.116.)”